SINGLE-parent families are now the fastest-growing family type in Australia.

While the numbers of couples with children will grow by up to 40 per cent over the next 20 years, the numbers of one-parent families will soar by up to 70 per cent.

Part of this growing demographic trend are single women in their late-30s who are putting their search for Mr Right on the backburner and starting families alone.

IVF Australia’s medical director Peter Illingworth said the number of single women coming through the doors of his fertility clinic had doubled since the start of the decade.

Nadine is a single Sydney woman who had a little girl, 17 month old Talia, through IVF. Picture: DYLAN ROBINSONSource:News Corp Australia

“There is no doubt this (trend) is increasing, it has doubled in the last five years,” he said. About 50 people join the wait list for sperm donors each month at IVF Australia and around half of these would-be parents are single mums who have decided they will resume their search for a partner after having a child.

“It’s becoming more socially acceptable for women to do this. Twenty to 30 years ago women would never have done this because of the social stigma of it all, but there is a growing awareness that this is a very reasonable decision to make,” Dr Illingworth said.

‘I had the rest of my life to find the right man, but I didn’t have the rest of my life to have a child’. Picture: Dylan RobinsonSource:News Corp Australia

Barbara Bryan, who runs website singlemum.com.au, said there had been a noticeable increase in the number of single women looking to start families.

“For many it’s simply that they have realised Mr Right may not be out there for them in time for them to be able to conceive a child while they are still in their biological child-bearing years,” she said.

Bondi interior designer Nadine, now 42, was single, 38 years old and petrified when her doctor told her bluntly that if she wanted to have a child it was now or never.

She had not expected to find herself in her late-30s without a partner. But for Nadine, who always wanted to be a mother, the choice to start a family alone was made when she realised never trying for a child was something she would always regret.

“I had the rest of my life to find the right man, but I didn’t have the rest of my life to have a child,” she said.

A year and a half ago Nadine gave birth to her beloved daughter Talia, who she said had made the whole experience so worthwhile.

“It is without doubt the best thing I have ever done, yes the scariest, but the most rewarding,” she said.